Final thoughts on the Council Self Pay Raise January 2/2019 Walk and Talk from Your Local Realtor Brad Sinclair

Who gets a 79% raise in pay? The only people in this world that would get a 79% pay raise is someone who would give themselves that raise. Is this not just wrong?

 Peterborough County Council has decided they are worthy of much much more pay. Were these councilors not ok with the current pay when they ran for office? Peterborough County Council has decided we need to pay them more. Not one councilor said hey, this is wrong or maybe we should discuss this. Their raise was given without discussion. What would have happen if a 79% raise for County staff came to vote. Would they vote yes on this motion? Of course not. Does Council value their services more then the hard working staff at the county. Looks like it. This raise is said it is about attraction and retention. Really? I had no idea Peterborough Counties Mayors and Deputy Mayors are hard to retain.  

I read a letter to the Peterborough Examiner’s Editor last night by Ron Black. His letter brought even a few more points what made the 79% raise in pay for Peterborough County Council so wrong. Before I get to Ron’s points I want to make one thing clear that seems to be a little misunderstood. The position of Peterborough County Councillor is a part time position working for the County. Two meetings per month and preparation time. This has nothing to do with their pay as Mayors or Deputy Mayors in their own individual townships. One of Ron’s points are these Councillors all ran for their positions for Mayor and Deputy Mayor knowing they will automatically be on Peterborough County Council and the pay for the position. Can anyone remember them running a platform to raise their pay for Ptbo county council? Of coarse not, but this has been one of the very first things they did. Another point that made their rational flawed was they used other municipalities for comparables. None of these municipalities had a deputy mayor but council decided to keep theirs. There was no comparable so they throw him a 37% raise. It was also discussed the Warden was pay was higher then most but since their was a loss in tax relief they were not going to adjust that pay down. So in other words they cherry picked the data and rational of the findings in the research of pay scale.

After writing this show I asked myself, What do I want from this situation? What I want is someone from the council to just speak to us about this situation open and honestly.  If they would just communicate with us, maybe this situation could be healed quickly.

Comments to the reaction I received from the original video

That is all I have for you today.  

When you are in a need for a Realtor Check me online at www.bradsinclair.ca I would like to have you business.

Written for you by:

Your local Realtor®

If you are looking to either Buy or Sell in Selwyn or Peterborough contact me immediately at 705-927-6236

Brad Sinclair, Sales Representative

Royal LePage Frank Real Estate Brokerage

Solving Problems and Making Things Happen in Real Estate since 2007

www.bradsinclair.ca

www.royallepagerealestate.com

www.gowaterfront.ca

Selwyn Council 4 Year vision, I would like to see more. January 2/2019 Walk and Talk from Your Local Realtor Brad Sinclair

Hey everybody , Brad Sinclair here, your local Realtor, Looking to earn your real estate business since 2007 and Welcome to today’s walk and talk.

Selwyn Council and staff has put together a strategic plan and goals document for their current 4 year term.  I reviewed the 7 page document (click here to see document) of the 4 year targets and I am a little disappointed of the lack of vision council has for Selwyn. Most of the targets in this document can be accomplished within one or two years very easily. Quite frankly, some goals should not even be in this document. For example, one of the 4 year goals is to expand the leaf and yard waste pick up in Ennismore and through out the Township. Why is a County of Peterborough program on Selwyn strategic plan? Another silly goal is having name tags for staff and on hold music for the township. Is that really the priority of council in a four year term?

That said there is some excellent goals in this document as well. Council is looking to hold Town Hall meetings for each ward once a year. They are also considering blogging key community decisions. Over the next four years counsel will also review severance policy’s, update and review the official plan and work on natural gas and broadband expansion. 

The questions that jump out at me is: What is councils vision on parks, township properties, roads and fire department over the next four years? What type of financial reserves will we have? What is staffing levels going to look like? What is their vision on major projects and infrastructure will we see in all wards of Ennismore, Smith and Lakefield?

I challenge council to push themselves and have a vision that truly excites the community for the next four years.

That is all I have for you today.  

When you are in a need for a Realtor Check me online at www.bradsinclair.ca I would like to have you business.

Written for you by:

Your local Realtor®

If you are looking to either Buy or Sell in Selwyn or Peterborough contact me immediately at 705-927-6236

Brad Sinclair, Sales Representative

Royal LePage Frank Real Estate Brokerage

Solving Problems and Making Things Happen in Real Estate since 2007

www.bradsinclair.ca

www.royallepagerealestate.com

www.gowaterfront.ca

My thought on what to do with the GE site. December 18/2018 Walk and Talk from Your Local Realtor Brad Sinclair:

After 126 years of business and Manufacturing, GE has closed its doors in Peterborough. So, what is going to happen to this 80 acre property? (Park St and Monaghan St parking lot.) 

Is GE going to do the American thing and board up the buildings and walk away?Maybe leave a skeleton crew on just to say there is current operations? 

My understanding is one of the biggest reasons this plant has closed is the poor condition of the plants buildings. It is also my understanding that the property is extremely contaminated. I don’t think this is a secret by any means. So what do we do? No one will ever be able to clean up this property. It will be a contaminated mess forever. Do you let it just rot? 

Or do we build the OHL and multiplex arena here? Think about this. When OMC left Peterborough they donated their contaminated property to the city and we even named the arena after one of their products. Developers Paved the site to seal the contamination and used the property for recreation. Win win right? So if nothing will ever happen to the GE property by GE why not approach GE to donate the land and a good portion of money for naming rights of a new complex for Peterborough to take over the property. Let’s try to make this loss the best win we possibly can. There is no better site in the city for a new complex and no other manufacturer is going to take over the site and poor condition buildings. 

Having a boarded up 126 year old manufacturing plant will never do Peterborough any good!

That is all I have for you today.  

When you are in a need for a Realtor Check me online at www.bradsinclair.ca I would like to have you business.

Written for you by:

Your local Realtor®

If you are looking to either Buy or Sell in Selwyn or Peterborough contact me immediately at 705-927-6236

Brad Sinclair, Sales Representative

Royal LePage Frank Real Estate Brokerage

Solving Problems and Making Things Happen in Real Estate since 2007

www.bradsinclair.ca

www.royallepagerealestate.com

www.gowaterfront.ca